"Everyone needs a computer". This idea, a triviality at first glance, is at the core of the business model of a young Catalan startup that has managed, without raising external capital, to be profitable in just four months of activity. This is Walter!, a start-up founded by entrepreneurs Marc Ginjaume, Carlos Andion, and Juan Dávila that centralizes and handles all IT demand from clients, mainly other startups and tech companies. From the supply of computers and other technological devices to cybersecurity, including the maintenance of broken products, Walter! equips teams in "hypergrowth phase" of between 50 and 1,000 employees. And it does so – the crux of the matter – in less than 48 hours and in more than 150 countries.

The Grifols project in Egypt is accelerating its development beyond expectations. The joint venture between the Catalan multinational and the Egyptian government, dedicated to achieving self-sufficiency in plasma derivatives, will invest an additional 180 million euros by 2029 to complete the project and substantially expand the network of donation centers. Initially, the plasma-derived medicines company and the African executive announced an allocation of 280 million euros. With the new growth plan, total financing will reach 460 million euros.

The Mobile World Capital Barcelona foundation, the entity linked to the MWC technology congress that manages its legacy in the city, now has new leadership. The foundation's board of trustees has appointed journalist Laia Corbella as the new general director. Corbella takes over from Francesc Fajula, who left the organization in May to lead the artificial intelligence gigafactory project in Móra la Nova.

Josep Sánchez Llibre (Vilassar de Mar, 1949), re-elected president of Foment del Treball less than a month ago, prioritizes the fight against absenteeism and plans to have a white paper with solution proposals ready by the first fortnight of September. He already has the list of professionals who will prepare it and explains it in this interview with ARA, conducted during a break at the Annual Meeting of the Cercle d'Economia.

The adoption of artificial intelligence in the Catalan technology sector is already beginning to take a toll on the workforce, especially among the youngest. According to the latest report "Digital talent overview, developed by the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, the offers for junior workers among ICT companies in Barcelona fell by nearly 27% in 2025 The survey, it should be noted, coincides with the digital talent director's assessment: professionals in the sector are using AI to carry out tasks traditionally assigned to new hires. More than 74% declare using chatbots to draft documentation related to code; a similar rate to those who use them to elaborate explanations of already operational code. They also highlight assistance in development or making small additions to developed applications and websites.

Adrià Argemí, co-founder and CEO of the aerospace company Pangea Propulsion, meets with theCompanies among bankers, presidents, and executives of the Ibex, during the Cercle d'Economia Meeting. Argemí, an engineer by training and a Europeanist by vocation, has been one of the profiles chosen by the Barcelona bourgeoisie club to speak about the topic of the year: European defense.

The Catalan biopharmaceutical Ona Therapeutics has closed a Series B funding round of 74.2 million euros to continue developing its cancer treatments. The new capital injection has been co-led by Valencian investor Columbus Venture Partners and French manager Mérieux Equity Partners, in addition to the public Cofides and the family office Korys. Current partners also participated: Asabys Partners, Alta Life Sciences, Bpifrance, CDTI, FundPlus NV, and Ysios Capital.

Elon Musk seeks to break down the doors of Wall Street. In an update to the IPO prospectus of his technology giant, SpaceX, the world's richest man has specified that it will issue 555 million shares at a unit price of $135. In this way, Musk's space and artificial intelligence insignia seeks to add about $75 billion to its capital, an amount that would consolidate it as the largest initial public offering (IPO, the technical name for a company's stock market debut) in history, surpassing that of the oil company Saudi Aramco in 2019, which raised just over $29 billion.

The executive president of Telefónica, Marc Murtra, has pointed out the "gigantic weaknesses" that Europe suffers from in a time of technological revolution. In his speech at the 41st Meeting of the Cercle d'Economia, the leader of the state's leading telco lamented that European administrations "do not have the capacity" to regulate North American technology companies. In the executive's view, the Twenty-Seven suffer from "extremely dangerous vulnerabilities, and which are very real" with respect to the planet's major technological powers. To face them, he calls for "making decisions." "All reports lead down the same path, but now we must execute," he stated.

Grifols already has on the horizon the start of operations of the new production center in Lliçà de Vall (Vallès Oriental). The Catalan multinational in the plasma-derived medicines sector laid the first stone of the Vallès plant this Wednesday, which specializes in plasma fractionation and the production of derivatives. The new facilities will represent an investment of 160 million euros "in a first phase", as the company announced last summer, and will add approximately 400 new employees to the company's workforce, which already has about 4,700 employees in Spain.

Factorial continues to expand its growth capacity. The Barcelona-based platform specializing in general management for companies has raised a Series D investment round of 150 million dollars —129 million euros—. With this new operation, led by the North American fund General Catalyst, the Catalan tech company multiplies its valuation to 2.5 billion dollars —2.2 billion euros—.

The Minister of Industry and Tourism of the Spanish government, Jordi Hereu, boasted about the capacity of Spanish industry. In his speech at the 41st Meeting of the Cercle d'Economia, Hereu celebrated that the state's productive sector "holds its ground", and survives the multiple geopolitical threats that surround it.

Nvidia wants to fight all battles. The most valuable company on the planet, until now specializing in the production of graphics memories (GPUs), has kicked down the door this Monday to the market for processors for personal computers. In its intervention at the Computex technology conference, held in Taipei (Taiwan), the CEO of the tech giant, Jensen Huang, revealed the new RTX Spark Superchip, a microprocessor dedicated to consumer laptops. With this technology, designed to process the latest artificial intelligence applications and agents, Nvidia enters fully into the battle with processor manufacturers, such as Apple, Intel, or AMD.

Barcelona has already built a digital workforce that rivals any ecosystem in the region. According to the latest Digital talent overview, elaborated by the Mobile World Capital Barcelona foundation, the country's capital already concentrates more than 135,000 information and communication technology professionalsThe calculation of the purchasing power of digital employees is more favorable in Barcelona. If the cost of living in all cities is equated, the country's capital is located just below the European average, which drops to 54,000 euros per year. Some environments, such as London, fall several positions due to the progressive increase in the cost of housing and consumer goods. This, in the words of the director of digital talent at MWCapital, Jordi Arrufí, creates a balance that makes Barcelona more attractive than other competitors. "Salaries are competitive, which is an ambiguous word. They are attractive for companies compared to Northern Europe, but the worker has a significantly higher standard of living than the city average," considers the expert. That is, "with lower salaries, digital workers in Barcelona live better".

A recent report prepared by specialized technology companies has shown that nearly half of Spanish companies have already suffered losses related to the climate emergency. From supply chain disruptions due to extreme weather events to factory shutdowns due to floods or droughts, the private sector is already beginning to feel the environmental tensions that threaten to turn the planet upside down on its balance sheets. The figures are more than eloquent: in the worst cases, some companies have registered losses of up to 500,000 euros due to just one unforeseen climatic phenomenon. The company behind the study, the Catalan Mitiga Solutions, has been one of the pioneers in observing, calculating, and –as the name suggests– mitigating this devastation. "We offer climate intelligence to identify climate risks in different assets, from infrastructure to a company's business model," explains its founder and CEO, Alejandro Martí, in conversation with Empreses.

Puig seeks to leave behind the non-merger with the American Estée Lauder. Just a few days after announcing the breakdown of business combination talks with the American family company, the Catalan multinational premium beauty company has asserted itself before its shareholders. In his address to the general shareholders' meeting, held online this Friday, the executive chairman, Marc Puig, highlighted the company's performance and the bond maintained by the founding family. "We are not for sale," he stated, before assuring that the majority shareholders' intention is to "stay for the long term." The scenario, he argued, would have been "the same" had the transatlantic merger deal been completed. "We have a history of over 110 years that backs us up," the executive added.

The president of Pimec, Antoni Cañete, has called on Brussels for business regulation that is "simpler, more proportionate and adapted" for SMEs. The leader of the Catalan association of small and medium-sized enterprises met this Thursday with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and warned of the "bureaucratic overload" that the business fabric suffers from, which "hinders its competitiveness and growth".

The Catalan technological ecosystem receives its accolades at the 19th edition of the EmprènXXI awards, the accolades from CaixaBank DayOne and the state entrepreneurship financing company Enisa dedicated to the best emerging companies. The entity's entrepreneurship financing segment has awarded the start-ups Second Hundred, Aridditive, and AtomH2 in three of its eight sectoral challenges of the year, while it has granted the biomedical company Polar Nanopharma one of the two honorable mentions, dedicated to the initiative with the greatest capacity for social impact. The four companies from the principality have prevailed in a process that received more than a thousand applications.

The public center for technological research and development i2CAT presented its new headquarters this Wednesday. Located at Pier01, the Palau de Mar space managed by the technology employers' association Tech Barcelona, the new facility has an area of approximately 2,000 square meters. The relocation and adaptation of the offices and laboratories have involved an investment of around 10 million euros, coming mostly from European Next Generation funds through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. According to the center's director, Sergi Figuerola, the move serves to unite i2CAT with "the digital ecosystem of Tech, to generate synergies with a hub of reference in southern Europe".

The digital economy continues its expansion in Barcelona, also in the labor market. According to data from the latest Digital talent overview report, the annual study by the Mobile World Capital Barcelona foundation that details the state of the ICT professional network in the country's capital, the Barcelona technology sector has already surpassed 135,000 workers, 6.5% of the city's total employment. Last year, the local ecosystem added nearly 6,300 professionals, a year-on-year increase of 4.85%; triple the rate of the general Barcelona labor market, which grew by 1.73% compared to 2024.